


Mind Over Matter

by GretchenSinister



Category: Captain America (Movies), Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-13
Packaged: 2020-11-02 04:50:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 524
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20627447
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GretchenSinister/pseuds/GretchenSinister
Summary: Original Prompt: "Turns out it was Jack’s ice that froze Captain America over and alive all those years and Steve, whether because of Jack’s ice being what kept him alive or that he is an artist or that he’s somewhat of the believing sort he can see Jack (possibly even before he was iced/when he was iced). Jack passes by the Capt. America/Avengers at some point. (Perhaps during a battle and Jack’s ice saves Steve again.)Throw pairings in if you want.Points if Tony’s there and gets involved in serious banter.Points if Tony actually sees a glimpse of Jack/gets pranked by Jack."No bonuses, because I have more Steve Rogers feels than Tony Stark feels.Steve’s ready to die, Manny’s ready to claim him, Jack stops that because HE DOESN’T KNOW WHAT IT MEANS WHEN MANNY CHOOSES SOMEONE OMG YOU ARE A TERRIBLE COMMUNICATOR.





	Mind Over Matter

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr on 3/14/2014.

The water rushes up around the plane, so cold it only remains liquid because it is as salt as the warm water on the face of the man inside.   
  
Captain Rogers doesn’t know if he deserves to cry right now. After all, Steve’s the only one that’s going to die, and he’s going to die so that others will be safe. So he tries not to think about the water on his face. It’ll be ice soon enough, anyway.   
  
He breathes deeply, trying to relish the few full breaths remaining to him. The lungs in this body are so wonderful. It would have been great to live in it long enough to really think of it as his, but, no matter. He had been able to work with it, just like he’d made the one before that work. He did the best he could with what he had.  
  
And this time, what he had was a malfunctioning plane full of dangerous weapons and the waves of the North Atlantic beneath that plane.   
  
The water closes over the windows and, totally alone, Steve knows he’s done the best he could—and, with what he had, it had come down to mind and heart once again—not body. He wishes—he wishes he could tell someone that.   
  
The light in the cockpit grows dimmer and he smiles. Peggy will know. She’ll understand what this meant, at the end. Maybe it’ll be even better, with her saying it, and not him. With this serum-body gone, it’d be easier to believe that it was only a means, not an end.  
  
Outside, a boy who’s been a boy for over two hundred years and still maintains that the only thing he _knows_ is that he’s called Jack, reacts like he knows a good deal more.  
  
He tells himself he doesn’t know if he’s doing the right thing, the useful thing, or even the thing he thinks he’s doing, but still he freezes the water around the plane and then, with only a wish and a hope to guide him, the water inside it.   
  
He’s never _saved_ anyone before, has he? Ice isn’t really something you save people with, is it?  
  
When the plane hit the water, he had noticed, not because of the sound or the sight, but because of a pull on the blood in his veins, not pulling him this time, but still familiar as the tides. The pull that brought him up through the ice, that left him as he is now. Invisible. Useless.  
  
As for the man down there—Jack recognizes him. He was a brave kid, and he’s even braver now. It wouldn’t be right to have Steve end up like him, and so, though he’s not sure if it’ll work, he builds layer after layer of ice around him, till the plane breaks open with it. Not even a soul could be drawn through ice like this.  
  
And even though Jack knows he’s probably only bought himself more years of silence with this act, he still smiles in relief when dreamsand falls upon the ice for the sake of the living dreamer inside.


End file.
